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  • Would you like to buy some "FCUK?"

    Ad Regulators Warn FCUK Again for Double Entendre

    Wed Jan 12,12:03 PM ET

    By Jeffrey Goldfarb

    LONDON (Reuters) - UK advertising regulators signaled a weariness of the double entendre used by French Connection to sell its FCUK brand and warned the clothing chain again, this time over a promotion for its line of fragrances.

    In an ad placed for French Connection by Zirh International in the Boots pharmacy chain's magazine, a picture of a young couple sitting on a bed in their underwear included fold-out samples of perfume with the phrases "open here to try fcuk her" and "open here to try fcuk him."

    Though it received just two complaints, the UK's self-regulatory Advertising Standards Authority said on Wednesday the advert was likely to cause serious or widespread offence to the magazine's readers and warned the advertisers not to do it again.

    It is the 13th time since 1999 that the ASA has published an adjudication regarding French Connection's adverts and the ninth time it has agreed with the complaints submitted.

    The company is currently required to submit its outdoor adverts to the ASA for approval before they are posted, the second two-year sanction to which it has been subjected.

    The first time -- from March 2001 to 2003 -- French Connection voluntarily submitted all its adverts, including those for magazines, to the ASA for review, a spokeswoman for the regulator said.

    French Connection argued this time around that the phrases used the company's trademark, were clearly labeled as such and were to make clear they could open the fold-outs to sample the perfumes named 'him' and 'her'.

    It also said Boots manufactures FCUK beauty products and regularly puts the brand in its "Health & Beauty" magazine, which has a circulation of about 1.8 million.

    The ASA said, however, that in the context of the ad, the phrases "could be interpreted as 'f---,' not just as the advertiser's brand name."

    "The Authority reminded Zirh International Corp. that it had previously made clear in published adjudications that 'fcuk' should not be used in an advertisement if it could be interpreted as 'f---' and was concerned that they had done so in the advertisement," the regulator said.

    The existing laws on taste and decency prohibit the ASA from handing out more severe sanctions against French Connection, the spokeswoman said.

    The FCUK logo has courted controversy since its launch in 1997. Fashion mavens say the rebellious hip factor that helped catapult the brand to success has long since worn off.

    French Connection issued a profit warning last November, but blamed a lack of fashion vision rather than the FCUK brand.

    http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...k_dc&printer=1

  • #2
    By creating a controversy behind the advts the govt. will be doing it a service of providing free promotion, for which the FCUK brand owner would have had to pay millions from their pockets.

    Cheers!...on the rocks!!

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    • #3
      Originally posted by lemontree
      By creating a controversy behind the advts the govt. will be doing it a service of providing free promotion, for which the FCUK brand owner would have had to pay millions from their pockets.
      Well the options seem to be limited. i.e. Let them get away with it. In which case, it will just get more blatant, or call them on it. In which case, they get publicity.

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